A01=John McWhorter
african slaves
afrogenesis
afrogenesis hypothesis
american history
atlantic english based creoles
Author_John McWhorter
Category=CFFD
Category=DSA
Category=GTD
Category=GTM
Category=JBSL
Category=JHM
colonial america
colonial plantations
creole genesis
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
french based creoles
genesis theory
historical
limited access model
linguistics
literary theory
new world
plantation creoles
plantations
slaveholders
slavery
sociolinguistics
spanish creoles
united states of america
west african trade settlements
white slaves
white traders
Product details
- ISBN 9780520219991
- Weight: 590g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 03 Jul 2000
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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John McWhorter challenges an enduring paradigm among linguists in this provocative exploration of the origins of plantation creoles. Using a wealth of data--linguistic, sociolinguistic, historical--he proposes that the "limited access model" of creole genesis is seriously flawed. That model maintains that plantation creole languages emerged because African slaves greatly outnumbered whites on colonial plantations. Having little access to the slaveholders' European languages, the slaves were forced to build a new language from what fragments they did acquire. Not so, says McWhorter, who posits that plantation creole originated in West African trade settlements, in interactions between white traders and slaves, some of whom were eventually transported overseas. The evidence that most New World creoles were imports traceable to West Africa strongly suggests that the well-established limited access model for plantation creole needs revision. In forcing a reexamination of this basic tenet, McWhorter's book will undoubtedly cause controversy. At the same time, it makes available a vast amount of data that will be a valuable resource for further explorations of genesis theory.
John H. McWhorter is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Towards a New Model of Creole Genesis (1997), The Word on the Street: Fact and Fable about American English (1998), and Spreading the Word: Language and Dialect in America (1999).
